SpinWatch's Eveline Lubbers recently read Karen S. Miller's 1999 book The Voice of Business, Hill & Knowlton and Postwar Public Relations. While Hill & Knowlton's work for the tobacco industry in the fifties has been covered by PR Watch and others, the PR firm's earlier work for the steel industry is not as widely known.

" The PR exploitation of drought and hunger in Zambia shows that for the [genetically modified (GM) food] lobby there are no limits, even when it involves rewriting history and manufacturing crimes against humanity," GM Watch's Jonathan Matthews writes. In 2002, Zambia sparked a firestorm when it refused to accept U.S. donations of GM corn to offset a looming famine. The Zambia government had concerns about the safety of GM foods.

Liu Xu, a staffer with Burson-Marsteller in China, told a reporter that in mid-April he only managed a few hours sleep a night while he helped Colgate reassure Chinese government agencies on the safety of using the suspected human carcinogen triclosan in toothpaste.